How to Become an ICE Agent in Oklahoma

Oklahoma is home to two key Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, both located in Tulsa. One is the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center (CJC), where ICE maintains its primary detention facility and which by a recent count was holding 152 prisoners. The second is the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which served as the base from which ICE agents arrested a total of 116 criminal aliens in 2012, 34 of whom had prior convictions for violent crime.

ICE Investigative Agents in Oklahoma target those who break federal laws, and focus especially on drug distribution networks and illegal immigration, which amounts to hundreds of arrests every year.

Required Education, Experience, and Training

US citizens with no felony convictions who are interested in ICE careers may qualify to become ICE Agents in Oklahoma.

Since ICE Agents must come from an educated background, one of the first challenges prospective agents face is having a four-year college degree. These can be in any subject, however choosing a major that is related to any of the following will also fulfill the experience requirement of at least a year’s activity in these areas:

Criminal Law

Civil Law

Law Enforcement

Criminal Investigations

Crime Scene Investigation

In addition to a bachelor degree, prospective agents must also have either one year of master’s-level school program study or meet one of the following conditions:

Rank in the top third of the graduating class or major cohort

Attain a 3.0 GPA cumulatively or for the final two years of study

Attain a 3.5 GPA in the major field of study

Belong to a non-freshman national honors society

After hire but before their first assignment, new ICE Agents will also need to graduate from a 22-week basic training course.

Cleaning Up Oklahoma’s Gang and Drug Problem

ICE Criminal Investigators in Oklahoma face a number of challenges, and certainly not least among these are gangs and drugs. ICE jobs can be extremely challenging, although examples of recent successes also provide plenty of opportunities to celebrate a job well done:

In Oklahoma City ICE Homeland Security Investigations recently wrapped up Operation Kool Aid by providing evidence for charges to be brought against 17 Mexican nationals who are suspected of being at the center of a major methamphetamine distribution ring.

In another recent mission, ICE Agents went after five local Oklahoma gangs making arrests in Oklahoma City, Comanche County, and McAlester. 46 suspects in total were taken into custody during the operation, which targeted foreign-born gang members and associates.

ICE Agents in Oklahoma City recently coordinated local arrests with those made in Tulsa and Lubbock, Texas in a four-day culmination of an operation targeting fugitive aliens. Across the state agents netted a total of 63 suspects, nine of whom had prior convictions including manslaughter, assault, and grand larceny.